County report card · Michigan
Montcalm County, Michigan
Vendor policy on automation has not been resolved
- Population
- 69,314
- Portal
- Assessor
- Portal vendor
- Not identified
What the audit checked
Four low-cost protections every online records portal can have. How we rate counties.
- robots.txtYes — permissive
- Terms of useNot checked
- Bot challengeNone detected
- Owner notificationUnknown
Portal audited: www.montcalmcountymi.gov, accessmygov.com/?uid=2034, www.montcalm.org/government/register_of_deeds/index.php, www.montcalm.us/596/Property-Tax-Information, tapestry.fidlar.com, montcalmcounty.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=12df7ce451344f448e73a904832a4b90
Doing well
No protections against automated access were found in this audit.
Room to grow
- Expanding the robots.txt file to disallow automated scrapers
What to ask for
Three low-cost protections that residents in other counties have found valuable:
1. Adding robots.txt rules that disallow automated scrapers
2. Including a Terms of Use that prohibits automated access
3. Implementing a notification system that alerts residents when their records are accessed (per the AZ, FL, HI, IL, UT model)
The full playbook is What Counties Can Do.